About PLOTS THAT SELL TO TOP PAY MAGAZINES
this book was written about short stories for magazines. they are similar to plots used in tv today. this wiki includes all the plots and most of the information about plots that is still relavant today. neither the auther nor i claim this is a compleate list of plots. how he gathered the plots: "From ten leading slick magazines which buy fiction, I took 400 short stories, read them and reread them. From each story I squeezed out its plot. When I was finished I found that, although there were 400 stories, there were roughly only thirty plots. If I had gone on reading more stories, would I have found more plots? Perhaps a few. But I stopped because I discovered that the plots of the last fifty stories I read repeated-every one- plots I had met in the first 350." his definition of a plot: "The word "plot" has been much used and abused. It has become a utility symbol which will perform any number of distinct and different duties for the user. The confusion concerning the precise meaning of the word has arisen from the fact that fuzzy-minded individuals have made two assumptions about plots, one of which is false. First, they assume that every story, play, and novel has a plot. That, I think, is true. Second, they assume that the plot of every fiction piece bears the same relation to the art work as a whole as every other plot bears to its surroundings. This is not true. These people, then, when asked the plot of a story or novel which happens to have a good deal of change and movement will respond with a detailed synopsis of the action and character development; but when asked for the plot of another piece in which things do not happen but merely are, they will tell you that there is no plot at all. Their mistake, of course, lies in telling too much of the first example and not enough of the second. To bring the mystery to a close and also to be more concrete, the plot of a story, as I see it, consists of that action about whose outcome the reader is most in doubt or that situation about whose explanation the reader is most puzzled. To arrive at the plot, as I've described it, read one half of a story, stop and inquire of yourself what single thing you most want to find out before the story ends. The focus of that curiosity constitutes the subject of the plot; the satisfaction of the curiosity constitutes the predicate of the plot. Together, they are the entire plot of the story. To take an example from Part II: A young husband has reason to believe that the infant boy his wife has borne him is not his own child. Many small pieces of evidence leading to this conclusion have been gathering in his mind since the child's birth. Together, they point to the husband's best friend as the probable father of the child. At every opportunity, the husband lays conversational traps for his wife. He stays awake nights listening for his wife to give herself away in her sleep. Almost everything pertinent she says seems charged with possibilities, but the absolute proof, the clincher, is missing. Finally, the time comes for the infant's christening. The wife has not been able to choose a name for the child, which only increases the husband's suspicions. At the very last moment, just as the minister asks for the name, the wife realizes what it should be. It should be her husband's given name, of course. In a flash, all the husband's doubts are resolved. Now, what is the plot of this story? First, ask the question: What did you most want to find out before the story ended? You might say: "Is the child really the husband's?" If you did, you'd be wrong. That isn't what you most wanted to find out because if, at the story's close, you were told that and nothing more you would be left quite unsatisfied. Much more to the point is the question "Will the husband's doubts be dispelled and, if so, how?" Anything short of that would not have completed the story. Consequently, the plot (a common one) is: The Hero's Doubt about Another Is Dispelled The story only incidentally concerns the fidelity itself. As it appeared in print, the story gave no more assurance of the wife's faithfulness to the reader than it did to the husband. The reason is simply that the concern of the story is the hero's doubt and not his wife's morals. I use this story here simply to show that, although it is not at all difficult to draw out the true plot from a story, it may not occur to the reader immediately. Not that drawing out the "true plot" of a story is or should be the concern of the casual reader. But, when fashioning a story, the writer should know exactly what he is about when he poses the question of the plot-subject and answers it with the plot-predicate. If the writer of this doubt-story had at any point overemphasized the question of the actual fidelity, he would have dispersed the attention of his readers and presented two problems-the paternity of the child and the faith of the husband-when one problem would make for the clean, unified piece of fiction that this story was. Almost all the plot headings used in this book can be broken down nicely into a subject and predicate. You will see a plot-type described as "Friends or Lovers Quarrel and Are Reconciled." The subject of the plot will be, "Will the friends or lovers who are quarreling be reconciled, and how?" The answer will be, "Yes . . . and in this manner." You will see the plot "The Puzzling Identity Is Revealed," which resolves itself into the question, "Which one is it?," and the answer, "This one. " The plot "Boy Loses Girl " provides, "Will the boy get the girl?" and the reply, "No." At this point, such analyzing may seem an outrageous simplification of things. Of course, it would be if it weren't backed up and filled in with examples. But, actually, more than 90 percent of slick stories manage to hold a reader's attention merely by putting such easy questions and following with such plain answers. With just this question-and-answer technique, the writer creates suspense. And suspense is one commodity common to all successful fiction. The question can be how, what, or who-or a combination of any two or all three of these. The job of the writer is to interest the reader in the question, whatever it happens to be, and then satisfy the reader with an answer. If the writer manages this, he has written a successful story. how to use this book: You've recently spent some time in the Florida Everglades. The terrain, the insects, the bird and animal life of the district have made a strong impression on you. While there, you heard of a certain native who makes his living hunting snakes. You feel there's material here for a fine, exciting slick story: the exotic, danger-charged atmosphere, an interesting main character, a quaint occupation. But, that's all you have. You lack the story structure which will provide the necessary suspense, the dramatic urgency, the conflict, and the final resolution. Now is the time to use this volume as a handbook. Read until you meet a plot line that seems able to carry the tone of the atmosphere and see how it is being handled in other currently sold and published stories. Naturally, any slavish reliance on the examples given would be a bad mistake, even an unquestioning acceptance of the generalizations drawn from the examples would be unwise. But as a guide to follow where you yourself are uncertain, and as a bank of germinal ideas, this book should prove itself many times over. I would like the writer to be able to approach these plot discussions with merely a sentiment in mind, or with only, say, a paradoxical observation on human nature and come away with the makings of a slick story.